Sports car racing is facing the same issues with sponsors.
You know the old saying:

At a NASCAR race the specatators know the drivers names.
At a sports car race, the drivers know the spectators names.

Except for Le Mans. ;)

Sports car racing has a big challenge of racing a car that the fans can sort of identify with. So many of the race cars at the professional level (except the Porsche 911) is a custom fabricated tube frame or special built by some company other than the factory.

It is such a challenge to makes things fair. The modern sports cars have some huge differences in engines from small 4 bangers to monster V8s or the Viper 10 cylinder engine. If one race has 15 different classes it becomes a real challenge for the fans to keep it all straight.

Somehow the new 919 just does not excite me at all. That entire class of prototypes just seem alien and strange. I do enjoy cars that look something more like street cars. I really hate the "rubbing is racing" that has invaded so much of sports car racing. I would impose major penalties for those antics if it were up to me.

This is a thread about drag racing and not sports car racing anyway so I will stop.

LOL at Le Mans no one knows anyone!

Drives me crazy when they keep referring to a car by the driver when the drivers change every couple of hours.
You can't tell who's who without a spreadsheet. :confused:

BTW ... this is a thread about motor-sports sponsorship and how it is endagering the future of competitive racing so the same same applies.
Plus the thread has just about run it's course and it's due a course correction.

Besides, this is PP off-topic forum, how can we go off-topic in an off-topic forum?

shame on me, a free plug for a Top Fuel Eye Watering Smellgasm I recently had.


DamnYouHiggins.


Hard, Nipples, Engage.



https://vimeo.com/102659515

Heh heh heh... I well remember breaking Mr. Heap's nitro cherry. Good times.

Everyone needs to see Top Fuel and Funny Car at some point in their lives. It will forever change one's perspective on "motorsport".

pretty wild seeing big money get out of drag racing. hope this means the small private teams will have more track time and get things back to a manageable budget. i plan to be running more events with my 1964 chevelle in 2015.

off topic... how about off-road?!

http://silodrome.com/wp-content/uplo...rag-racer.jpeg

We used to have....

Nanook. Pure Hell. Pure Heaven.

Color Me Gone. Blue Max. Praying Mantis. Swamp Rat. Stardust. Freight Train.

Now we have...

Napa Dodge. Castrol Ford. DHL Toyota.

Army Dragster. AlAnabi Dragster.

Maybe that means something, maybe not.

We didn't know it at the time, but a lot was lost when Mattel decided to throw big money at Don and Tom and market Snake and Mongoose like a commodity.

My Personal Cards from early 70's.


yes they came with a stick of bubblegum in the pack.


just 3 minutes ago I layed these out on my scanner flatbed.



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1421182248.jpg

LOL, I remember those cards.
I had a bunch of em and one of my brothers trashed em when we got in a fight (one of many).



I believe the sport of drag racing started to die when one by one the tracks were turned into condos because it got too darned expensive to insure them from the threat of lawsuits. Tracks like lions, OCIR, irwindale, etc.

The only tracks left were the big $$$ tracks and they could only operate with TV money.

The TV money was a double-edged sword that made the cars faster and more competitive, up until the point where only the teams with big $$$$$ could compete.

Hopefully the sport will reach equilibrium where the big $$$ will die down as will the big money teams.
Then the sport can go back to grass roots, a bunch of guys who love racing do it for fun out of their garages.
But if there are no tracks left there won't be much chance of that.

And/or it will change one's perspective on "LOUD". :D

I would add everyone should go to ONE NASCAR race... my friend is a HUGE NASCAR fan and I got free tickets... we both agreed it was a BTDT event.

I was at the starting line today when Shawn Langdon went 3.70, the quickest run ever.
That should get them some sponsor $$$$$.

BTW Guy Fierri (food network) was in Shawn's hospitality area this afternoon ..........
Coinky-dink?

Langdon leaves no doubt
Shawn Langdon and Alan Johnson Racing make statement
Updated: February 9, 2015, 9:35 AM By Tim Haddock |Special to ESPN.com

POMONA, California -- The inspiring story of Shawn Langdon and Alan Johnson Racing reached its pinnacle when Langdon won the NHRA Top Fuel final at the Circle K Winternationals in Pomona on Sunday.
The courtship of celebrity chef Guy Fieri added an interesting wrinkle to the story.

Langdon's car carried Fieri's Knuckle Sandwich brand throughout the weekend. Fieri was a constant presence in the Alan Johnson Racing pit stall, garage area and at the starting line for Langdon's runs on Sunday. Cheers from crowds welcomed Fieri every time he poked his spiked blond hair outside. But how involved he is with the team remained a mystery.

"He is part of our race team," said Rob Goodman, director of media relations for Alan Johnson Racing. "He is helping us find sponsorship."

Goodman did not say if Fieri is providing any sponsorship money to the team. Fieri was in discussions with team officials all weekend.

"We want to keep going, baby," Fieri said during the victory celebration after the races in Pomona. "Get a couple more."

A couple more might be a little optimistic. The Alan Johnson Racing team is prepared to race in the CarQuest Auto Parts Nationals in Arizona in two weeks. The team might not be able to continue racing after that, Langdon said.

"We definitely feel better about it. We're still in the same position as we were coming in here," Langdon said. "We're still trying to find sponsorship for the 2015 season. At this point, we take what we did here, move on to Phoenix and try to continue what we've been doing. Hopefully we can move on to Gainesville after that. At this point, we're focused on Phoenix. We just have to reassess after Phoenix."

Langdon won for the second time in his career in the NHRA Winternationals. It was the fourth time he won at Auto Club Raceway. He was the No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel and set the track record in qualifying with a 3.700 run on Saturday.

"Our goal was to win the race," Langdon said. "We did that. Now our next step is to go to Phoenix and hopefully we can do the same thing there."

Langdon beat Steve Chrisman in the first round. He knocked out Leah Pritchett in the second round, setting up a race against Spencer Massey in the semifinals.

Massey set the track record for speed in qualifying at 332.18 mph, making the semifinal race the toughest test of the weekend for Langdon.
But Langdon won by 0.016 seconds in one of the closest races of the day.

"We need to come out here and make a statement," Langdon said. "We need to show everybody that we're serious and we want to race this 2015 Mello Yellow season. We want to contend for the championship. What better way to do that than the quickest pass in history, No. 1 qualifier and winning the race."

Wow.

Is that a full 1/4 mile or the 1,000 ft distance?

It is crazy fast either way but just mind boggling if it was 1320 feet.

That's a thousand feet. The quarter mile for fuel cars is more than likely a historical footnote at this stage of the game.

As an aside, and withholding public judgement (but reserving the right to judge privately) this is state of the art in funny cars these days.

Narrow Camaro indeed.....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1423526153.jpg

During eliminations, he ran a (slower) 3.74 with the following incremental times:

zero to 60ft 0.826 seconds (around 100 mph)
zero to 330ft 2.117 seconds (around 200 mph)
zero to 660ft (1/8th mile) 3.002 (287.05 mph)
zero to 1000ft 3.74 seconds at 320 mph

zero to 100 mph in less than a second.

There's a good story that goes like this:
if you had a car that could go 200 mph, and you got a 200 mile per hour head start and passed a dragster sitting at the light ready to go, and he hit the throttle at the exact same instant you passed him going 200, he's catch you and pass you easily before you made it to the 1000 foot line.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1423533377.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1423533403.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1423533422.jpg